Tecnomatix quality management

In 1987 , an American company of the same name created the Valisys product. In the same year, the commercial product was fully integrated into the Unigraphics system (now NX ). In 1994 , the Israeli company Tecnomatix Corporation acquired Valysis for $ 2.3 million. After the merger, the product was called eM-Quality, it included the products of Variation Analysis CAD, ProbeCAD, Analyze and Inspector. These products worked as plug-ins in popular CAD systems: NX, CATIA, PRO / Engineer, I-DEAS.

In early 2005 , Tecnomatix was acquired by UGS Corp ^{[3] [4]} . The Tecnomatix solution suite was combined with existing UGS pre-production automation solutions. In January 2007 , UGS was acquired by Siemens AG ^[5] . From this moment, the supply and support of Tecnomatix solutions and Tecnomatix Quality Management applications in particular are carried out by Siemens PLM Software .

The Tecnomatix Quality Management product family includes:

• NX CMM - solution for creating control programs for coordinate measuring machines (CMM)
• Teamcenter Visualization (Vis / VSA, Variation Analysis) - solution for dimensional chain analysis when assembling parts with deviations
• Dimensional Planning and Validation (DPV) - a solution for collecting CMM and other measurement equipment measurement results, as well as analyzing measurements and the causes of deviations and defects
• CMM Inspection Execution - a solution for consistent and accurate control, as well as analysis of manufactured parts on coordinate measuring machines and CNC machines

Tecnomatix Quality Management applications support Lean and Six Sigma . The digital environment allows you to simulate the assembly of the product from parts with deviations, to identify problems and the most critical tolerances, which eliminates possible difficulties during assembly due to the size dispersion.

The reduction of deviations of the assembled product is based on the dimensional analysis tool Dimensional Planning & Validation (DPV), which predicts the magnitude and causes of dispersion during the process. Using this tool, engineers create a three-dimensional digital prototype for a complete simulation of the production process, including modeling tolerances and part errors during processing.

With DPV, you can capture large volumes of measurements of real parts performed in workshops and manage them in Teamcenter . Designers and technologists can use the search and analysis functions to compare data on the quality of products manufactured at various plants and to optimize products and production processes. Such a model makes it possible to anticipate the occurrence of problems during assembly and identify their causes before manufacturing tooling or real parts. ^{[6] [7]}

The Tecnomatix Quality Management system is also used to create complex measurement programs on CMMs and CNC machines , to analyze the measurement results based on a comparison with the tolerances assigned by the designer. The creation of measurement programs and analysis of the results is carried out in a CAD environment on a mathematical model of the part, including the nominal geometry and the assigned tolerances. This helps to investigate the tolerances set by the designer on the part and the assembly, identify critical structural elements and interpret the measurement results.

Variation Analysis CAD allows you to analyze the design from the point of view of the collection of products from parts with deviations, calculate the statistical characteristics of the deviations of the assembly and identify tolerances with the greatest influence on the measured size. Using this tool allows you to control geometric accuracy across the company and take into account the real tolerance fields provided by existing equipment ^[8] .

NX CMM is designed to create measurement programs in a CAD environment. The approach implemented in the product allows unloading coordinate measuring machines (due to the exclusion of manual programming) and ensuring high program quality due to preliminary analysis of collisions of the measuring head with the part and measuring equipment, optimization of the trajectory and order of measurement of surface points, and optimal selection of the probe.

The CMM Inspection Execution product works directly at the controller's workplace and allows you to perform part measurements in the automatic mode and conduct an initial analysis of the part, comparing the measurement data with the tolerances specified by the designer. The comparison results can be obtained in a custom HTML format directly at the controller’s workplace. Since the initial measurement program is presented in a machine-independent DMIS format, it is possible to perform measurements and analysis of one program on different CMM models, which eliminates the ambiguity of the control results and eliminates the need to prepare separate programs for each CMM.

Measurement data that is stored in the Tecnomatix Quality Management environment can be displayed graphically, analyzed and transmitted within the enterprise. Reports generated by engineers can include measurement protocols, 3D geometry, views, sections, and text notes.

In 2010, Siemens PLM Software introduced the cloud-based DPV-Azure quality management solution, developed jointly with Microsoft. The solution provides the DPV application on the cloud computing platform Microsoft Windows Azure ^{[9] [10]} .